Is it me, or does there just seem to be more and more dead beat buyers responding to postings on these swap board forums?You know the type. They want your item, tell you they will send you the funds and you never hear back or they just keep jacking you around for days/weeks....My most recent experience (two in the past 3 months now) and I don't post that much stuff for sale, usually an excess item or something I bought and never really should have purchased to start with, but I recently posted a radio for sale and this KF5OFW contacts me and asks if I still have it as it is "exactly" what he is looking for. I respond yes, still have it and he comes back with I will take it, and will be back in town on the weekend. I said okay, I will hold it for you till then.

Well, you know the rest of the story. I have to send "prompting" emails to find out what is going on. First it is "won't be back in town until the weekend", then when prompted again, some mechanical problem (undefined), then when prompted again, Monday (18 Feb) is a holiday (yeah for Fed workers, banks, etc., but not for you??), then I can have my nephew pay you and you can drop it off with him, etc. etc. etc.etc.

This crap really gets old. I offered to drive to his house,drop it off and pick up the funds. No answer. I offer for him to just mal me a USPS money order and will get it to his house, no answer, I asked about well, what do you want to do. No answer.

All the whil,e I already know this individual lakcs integrity and honesty. He isn't planning o paying up, could be someone hi jacked his call and email? Who knows. Either way, I gave him more then enough opportunties to honor his verbal contract. Nadad.

I ran into the deadbeat buyer syndrome- or are they just scammers?- with a car I tried to sell via a print ad in Hemming's Motor News. After a telephone conversation with the prospective buyer I emailed him photos of the vehicle. He stated he wanted the vehicle and insisted on mailing me a deposit to hold the vehicle. This turned out to be a valid U.S.P.S. money order. My rookie mistake here, as I had never sold a car this way before, was to accept anything less than payment-in-full, a mistake I will never make again on any item I have for sale. No more owner-financing.

At this point the buyer presumably either a.) couldn't come up with the rest of the money, or b.) decided he was entitled to own this automobile for the amount of the deposit, which was less than 17% of the agreed-upon purchase price. He became evasive: he didn't have a car, or his car didn't run, or his girlfriend wouldn't drive him to Pennsylvania (from Virginia) to pick up the car, or he and his girlfriend were breaking up, or his mother (who lived in the area) didn't trust him enough to lend him her car, or he didn't want to ride the bus/train/whatever. One excuse led to another.

I then graciously offered to deliver the vehicle, only a short drive really, in a roadworthy vehicle with valid registration, state inspection, and insurance. The caveat was this would only be done for full payment. Even naive I was finally beginning to suspect my 'buyer' was not all he pretended to be.

This went on for about a month at which time I became impatient and sent him two identical letters, one via standard 1st class mail and the other via registered, return-recept letter. I was finally wising-up. Both letters were- big surprise!- undeliverable which in the case of the return-receipt letter triggered a perfunctory 'investigation' by the local post office that couldn't get a signature verifying receipt. The report I got back from my local Postmaster indicated there was some suspicion this guy wasn't totally on the up-and-up, but there were no specific details.

Over the next couple of weeks I received about 20 telephone calls from the failed purchaser to my number, made from 2 or 3 different phone numbers. Since his mailing address turned out to be fraudulent I had no problem turning off my answering machine until he finally gave up. He must have thought he had a real live one on the line!

To this day, I still have that car, and the deposit. I've pretty much given up any hope trying to sell it. Lot's of people with big ideas but it seems as if none of them have any real money.

When I had to do the "emailing" prompting to find out when are you in town, when are you coming or meeting me, etc. that is when the red flags went up. One excuse turned into another when I suspect the whole time his "mom" told him no more radios or something to that effect. Beats me. When I purchase something from a seller, there is frequent communication.1. Payment was sent out today in the mail.2. 3-4 days later, have you received it.3. Once confirmed the payment is with the Seller, I ask kindly to be sent either a notice when it leaves, a tracking number, etc.

All this is very little time taken, a courteousy, etc. And the opposite is also true. A guy bought something from me, told me he wants it (not "I am seriously interested" which doesn't state much), asked for my mailing address, told me when he is going to mail it. I told him once I receive his payment will close out the posting, will send him the tracking info and likely reimburse a bit on the shipping back to him as we are splitting it and I cannot accurately estimate it with USPS or UPS until I actually have a bill.

Well, regardless of what type of lame excuse, lie, etc., I sold my asset to another individual that was well above board. Some calls I retain in a file and watch for them in future dealings. Not all forums carry the information, but I do.

If someone hi jacked his call/email he needs to tend to it as this certainly isn't a good representation of one's character. I will say it again. I stand behind each and every transaction I do, wether it is selling an item or buying one, I often give the seller the benefit of the doubt (i.e. missed some minute issue with the item, etc.). But, I have never told someone I will buy their item and then, leave it at that. The Seller has the right to know from the Buyer what is going on without having to hunt down and track down the Buyer, decode what is going on (is this buyer for real, etc., never providing a phone number is a big red flag). I can find all that info as I have ways to locate it, but not worth my time, I just move on and sell it to some deserving individual. Should they actually come back later, well, sorry Charlie, only the best tasting tuna as the commerical went.

Just hope this individual gets things in order. As stated, haven't investigated into this deeply to determine a possible scam, hijacked call, or just an individual with no character. Not my problem, but I have made a note for future reference. There are way too many rip offs and scams on these swap boards so one has to be extremely cautious and careful. Sad it comes to this, but.....sign of the times...

I should have added DEAD BEAT Jerk Sellers to this posting. I recently inquired from 8 different individuals regarding something (common to all) they listed for sale. Responded, with a question or two since most of teh postings would say something like "looks good, works fine", with no pics. Not sure what all that means so a question or two about mods, or options. Anyway, no one response (and no, not in the spam folder either). Do these jerks lack common courtesy or are they just too lazy to type a response back (reply)? I don't get it. Do you want to sell/trade the item or not? I think from now on, I may just relay on Ebay....I don't like it, but I certainly don't like trying to figure out if the clown has this item for sale or not. With no response, certainly hard to determine if they even still have the item.

Is it me, or does there just seem to be more and more dead beat buyers responding to postings on these swap board forums?You know the type. They want your item, tell you they will send you the funds and you never hear back or they just keep jacking you around for days/weeks....My most recent experience (two in the past 3 months now) and I don't post that much stuff for sale, usually an excess item or something I bought and never really should have purchased to start with, but I recently posted a radio for sale and this KF5OFW contacts me and asks if I still have it as it is "exactly" what he is looking for. I respond yes, still have it and he comes back with I will take it, and will be back in town on the weekend. I said okay, I will hold it for you till then.

Well, you know the rest of the story. I have to send "prompting" emails to find out what is going on. First it is "won't be back in town until the weekend", then when prompted again, some mechanical problem (undefined), then when prompted again, Monday (18 Feb) is a holiday (yeah for Fed workers, banks, etc., but not for you??), then I can have my nephew pay you and you can drop it off with him, etc. etc. etc.etc.

This crap really gets old. I offered to drive to his house,drop it off and pick up the funds. No answer. I offer for him to just mal me a USPS money order and will get it to his house, no answer, I asked about well, what do you want to do. No answer.

All the whil,e I already know this individual lakcs integrity and honesty. He isn't planning o paying up, could be someone hi jacked his call and email? Who knows. Either way, I gave him more then enough opportunties to honor his verbal contract. Nadad.

But I seem to see more and more of this mentality.

Welcome to sales. He is not obligated to buy from you. You can't force him to do anything. The best you can do is move on and look for another buyer. I sell RF and Microwave Test Equipment for a living and after a while you can tell the tire kickers from the serious buyers. Just some feedback, I may not have suggested he just mail you a USPS money order. That is a red flag to those who buy from these forums that it may be a scam. When paying with a USPS money order a buyer has no recourse if you take the money and run.

Well, it is like the rudeness out of W2LG. I did a search and found a post for an item I would like to pursue. He comes back with "it was sold". I said thanks, would you mind updating your posting so future searching doesn't hit on your posting again. He comes back with "don't blame me". What a rude ass. Common courtesy to update your posting so you don't waste his or your time and it is too much trouble or, it is your fault for not memorizing his important callsign? I think not. Just poor practice and not using a swap board correctly (ignoring the guidelines they post and being a jerk). It matters not one bit to me to buy your item or if it is sold. I will sleep just as easy one way or the other...just follow thru with updating your posting(s). Geeze...talk about lazy....

I see this character or someone posing as him again, posting something for sale on another forum. I never did see any money on my transaction, just lots of red flags...could be legit or could be not....be cautious with individuals you don't know personally.

Below is a copy of the "buyers" email to me, in every case I replied and answered the questions. (I have omitted my responses to keep this comment manageable.) As a side note all but the last question was found in the original listing.

It is now 13 April 2013 and the supposed deal is still pending with no followup.

...Just some feedback, I may not have suggested he just mail you a USPS money order. That is a red flag to those who buy from these forums that it may be a scam. When paying with a USPS money order a buyer has no recourse if you take the money and run.

Not entirely. If the amount is only 50 bucks or so, maybe, but for large amounts, the USPS takes a dim view of robbery by mail. That's called fraud, and there are postal inspectors who are paid to investigate that very thing. It's true that you may not get your money back, but quite a few times those people are habitual offenders and they do get caught.

I consider tire kickers and dead beats two different types. I consider myself a tire kicker in that if I see something I am interested in, I like to communicate with the seller. There are a couple of reasons for this.

One is to find out if the ad is legitimate. With all the scams going on, most often a scammer will be too eager to just dump it on me and tell me to not waste his/her time.

The second reason is that I like to negotiate a price and or shipping. If the seller tells me that I am wasting my time, then that person is probably not worth dealing with.

I agree a dead beat is someone who says they will make the deal and fail to do that. But then that is what they are.

Please don't confuse the 2 types of people. If you can not tolerate those who want to communicate with you, then please don't waste my time by posting an add. I look at a trading forum as an electronic swapfest. I don't see many people at a swapfest just hand over big bucks without at least some conversation about the item. The same should be true in any sales forum.

The seller should be willing to "sell" his item. Not just post it and figure the money will just show up. Ever buy a house or car or other large ticket item that way? Why should an expensive radio related item be different?

The one thing that annoys me with 'tire-kickers' is this: I'll put an item up for sale with a price that I will say right on the ad as 'firm.' I'll still get tire-kickers who'll ask me to take less. For those that don't know it, 'firm' means the price is not negotiable!

You have a point there. That is why unless it is a price I can live with, I just keep looking.

Maybe ask for more then you want, and negotiate down to what you do want. Makes your "customer" feel like they got a deal then. Just like buying a car or a house. Another words, if you sell, be prepared to deal with a customer. If your not prepared to deal with a customer, then it makes you look like a scam as stated before.

You see I look at it from the customer end. Why should I buy from some grump too that is too lazy to take a little time to be friendly? If you have time to whine, why not take the time to be friendly? Isn't that what Amateur Radio is all about?

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